I need around 3-4 tonnes of topsoil (just for edging flower beds etc). Have been quoted everything from =A350-=A390 per tonne. Making this an expensive venture at up to =A3400! I can't believe muck is so expensive. It would almost be cheaper to by 70 litre bags of compost from B&Q or Homebase....can any suggest why this may be a bad/good idea?
I need around 3-4 tonnes of topsoil (just for edging flower beds etc). Have been quoted everything from =A350-=A390 per tonne. Making this an expensive venture at up to =A3400! I can't believe muck is so expensive. It would almost be cheaper to by 70 litre bags of compost from B&Q or Homebase....can any suggest why this may be a bad/good idea?
In message , Bear writes
6-8 tons in total ?
Look in your local free-ads or freecycle for people digging out their lawns to put driveways in. A couple of years ago I had at least 30 tons of loamy soil to dispose of and couldn't give it away. Ended up paying serious money for a landscaper to remove it, who no doubt stockpiled it for his own use.
Dave
In article , Bear writes
It may be your quantities are a bit weedy for trade prices, my last big buy was a while ago (8 years) but was of the order of 15quid a ton when buying by the lorry load. That's central Scotland with suppliers found in the yellow page, keep shopping around.
Look in your local free-ads or freecycle for people digging out their lawns to put driveways in. A couple of years ago I had at least 30 tons of loamy soil to dispose of and couldn't give it away. Ended up paying serious money for a landscaper to remove it, who no doubt stockpiled it for his own use.
Dave
Where are you and do you have transport - if East Sussex I could cut you a deal
AWEM
JFGI
20-26 a ton for average muck seems about right. If you buy 10 tons +
Same position here
I had bags piled up in the front garden with a note telling people to just take what they wanted - no takers
There are different qualities of topsoil, the cheapest is 'reclaimed', IE crap and full of grit, glass, contaminants and lots of small debris - this is used by councils and large contractors when landscaping huge areas like motorway embankments and such likes, but it's not good for garden purposes, unless you have to fill in deep areas and then it's fine below a quality soil.
Next up is a poor quality soil which is mostly subsoil but with usually high quantities of sand or clay and is pretty much dead, but it looks good - this is fine but will need lots of compost and manure digging into it to make it into a decent growing medium.
top of the range is what you would expect topsoil to be, black, full of worms and composted vegetation and not too sandy or clay-like.
The cheapest is from 10-20 a tonne, the medium stuff is from 20-30 a tonne and the top quality stuff is 30-40 a tonne.
Look in your thompson local or yellow pages for 'grab services' and these will quote you for anything like this, soil, sand, grit, stone, tarmac etc
Way too expensive. I got 4 tonnes of reasonable stuff for 100 quid. Delivery was effectively free because it came in the skip I had also ordered. I needed to add a bit of compost, but my front garden is growing just fine now.
Got the stuff via my dad who does groundwork for a living, but I have no reason to believe I couldn't have got the same price if I called up myself.
20-26 a ton for average muck seems about right. If you buy 10 tons +
Buildbase..........per bag.
pg7$i42$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net...
Many thanks to all those who replied (politely). Will shop around see what I can find. Still think B&Q compost would work out cheaper - and better for growing stuff.
A gardener has said to me that you shouldn't use pure compost for growing things - you need to add soil to it.
you can cut it with sharp sand.
It's the clay you cant buy easily.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.